How to mirror your iPhone or iPad to your TV screen using Apple TV
One of the coolest features of Apple TV is the ability to “mirror” your iPad or iPhone’s display onto your TV screen. This enables you to watch nearly anything you can watch on your iPad or iPhone on your TV, including videos from iOS apps or live streams from websites.
For example, you can use the CBS.com iPad app to find a show on your iPad, then use your Apple TV to “project” the show to your TV screen. Or, you can pull up a live stream on the website on your phone, then project it to your TV. This gives your Apple TV access to a whole different world of content.
So how do you watch your iOS device’s display on your TV? As you might have guessed, you need an Apple TV (at least the second generation). If you don’t know what that is, you can read my detailed review here.
If you have an Apple TV and an iOS device, it’s not hard to get what Apple calls AirPlay “mirroring” to work. Here’s how to do it:
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Apple TV settings
First, you need to make sure your Apple TV and iOS device are on the same Wi-Fi network. If you are at home and your devices are set up to use Wi-Fi, you are probably already set up.
If you are in a hotel room or somewhere other than home, you must set up your Apple TV and devices to use the same Wi-Fi network.
Next, if you have never used Airplay on your Apple TV before and did not see the Airplay notification when you turned it on, you may have to enable it.
On your Apple TV, go to Settings – > Airplay and make sure Airplay is turned on.
iPhone instructions
On iPhone , swipe up from the bottom of the iPhone screen to show the Control Center:
Tap the Screen Mirroring button. If you don’t see it, check out the troubleshooting section at the end of this article. If it works, you should be able to select “Apple TV,” or whatever your Apple TV device is named.
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iPad Instructions
Apple has changed the way you access Control Center (unfortunately). It used to be the same as on the iPhone, where you would swipe up from the bottom. If you haven’t updated your iPad’s software in a while, that might work for you.
If you do keep your iPad OS up to date, you would swipe down from the top right.
Once you see the Control Center, tap the Screen Mirroring button and select your Apple TV.
If you don’t see your Apple TV in Control Center, try restarting your Apple TV. If there’s still nothing, check out the troubleshooting guide at the end of this article.
Note that you may have to adjust your TV’s zoom settings if you want it to fill the entire screen. This sacrifices some resolution, but it’s not bad at all on most sites I checked (still much better than my old SD-quality TV). On my Sony remote, this button is labeled “WIDE.” Here is the final result:
Troubleshooting
If the Airplay icon does not appear on your iPad, check the following:
- Make sure you have an iPad 2 or later, iPhone 4S or later, or iPad Mini.
- Make sure your Apple TV is a 2nd generation or later (most are).
- Make sure both your Apple TV and iPad have access to the internet and are on the same Wi-Fi network (the Wi-Fi network name should be the same).
- Make sure Airplay is “turned on” on your Apple TV. Go to Settings -> Airplay.
- Try restarting your wireless router, iPad/iPhone, and Apple TV.
- Turn on your iPad and Apple TV and wait a few minutes. I’ve seen it take a while for the Airplay icon to show up.
- If all else fails, try searching Google for “Airplay router setup” for your router. Some routers require special setup for Airplay to work properly. Here is an example:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3846783?start=0&tstart=0
